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Superman Family vs. Batman Family

Which of these has been more consistent as far as featuring the family members prominently, heroes growing into their own, etc. I remember liking Connor Kent as a kid a lot and I'm getting around to liking Supergirl, but something about the Bat family seems to stand out more, not sure what it is. Which family do you guys like?

It might have something to do with more of the Bat fam having solo books, crossing over into team books and having more sales/editorial push that makes them seem that way.

Each is great in their own right, but more gets done with the Batfam so probably them? I love some members of the Superman family but other than Kara, they're usually in team books so they don't really get a ton of room to develop.

It's hard to beat the group with Dick and Tim in it, even if I adore Lois Lane, Jon and Power Girl. The latter just never get to shine as much.

The Batman family definitely has more done with it. Dick, Jason, Tim, and Barbara are never going anywhere, while fan demand for less iconic characters like Steph and Cass is strong enough to overcome editorial dictates against their existence. Even if the writing is bad, those characters will always be around. The Super-family on the other hand has been limiting itself to only those related to Superman by blood since the triangle era ended. I don't have any complaints about Jon, but the best Superman family will always be the late 90s team of Steel, Linda, and upbeat Conner. And Kara's presence in a book or story is an immediate turn-off.

I prefer Superman as a character and mythology more than Batman, but the only Superman family character I really, really like is Supergirl Kara Zor El. I like her more than any of the Batman family characters. That said, I do like Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson quite a lot. Personally, I think Batman's family of heroes is overblown at this point. Most of the other ancillary heroes for both Batman and Superman don't pique my interest. I understand where DiDio is coming from when he wants to clear the slate with characters like those, not that I think that's the wisest course of action. Sometimes you have to put up with stuff you think is stupid because other people like it. I know people really like them a lot, but they're redundant, and conceptually, I think all of them running around is kind of...bleh. They'r redundant and confusing.

I much prefer Superman as a character and I love the Superman Family, but the other side has Nightwing. That right there puts the Batfamily over the top. Kara is great but nothing comes close to Dick Grayson.

I love both of the main characters, or at least some specific versions of them, and love many characters in their orbit. Roughly the same amount I think, especially if I include Lois, Jimmy, Alfred and Gordon. For costumed allies, I might slightly favor the Bat-Family. They are no doubt the more consistently visible ones.

Originally Posted by Vampire Savior

I prefer Superman as a character and mythology more than Batman, but the only Superman family character I really, really like is Supergirl Kara Zor El. I like her more than any of the Batman family characters. That said, I do like Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson quite a lot. Personally, I think Batman's family of heroes is overblown at this point. Most of the other ancillary heroes for both Batman and Superman don't pique my interest. I understand where DiDio is coming from when he wants to clear the slate with characters like those, not that I think that's the wisest course of action. Sometimes you have to put up with stuff you think is stupid because other people like it. I know people really like them a lot, but they're redundant, and conceptually, I think all of them running around is kind of...bleh. They'r redundant and confusing.

Yeah, I agree that most of the ancillary heroes don't do much for me. For the Super family, I mainly just like his closest super allies to be Kara and Krypto, with the only later addition being Steel. The Legion of course as well, but they shouldn't be as much of a constant presence. I don't care for either of the Superboys, or the other Supergirls (David's Linda and her story was interesting and I can see the appeal, but that's too far removed from what I like about Supergirl to accept as the main version. I'd dig her as a unrelated supernatural hero though). For the Bat-Family, it's like the X-Men. Too bloated. I think the core should just be Dick, Damian and Babs, with Kate, Jason, Huntress and the Club of Heroes off doing their own thing. Even that is kind of too much.

I'd agree with DiDio if his main Bat-Family target wasn't Dick grayson, who is like the #1 one you shouldn't fuck with. While i could see his point about the rest, he really isn't in the position to be indulging his views. You or I can feel that way, but we're not professionals who are potentially throwing money away and alienating customers. Anyone in charge should be above that, but he is far from consistently so.

As they stand now, thereís such a glut of characters in the Batman family that Iím disposed to favour the Superman family. I suppose if Superman was the lead seller for DC, then we would get a really big Superman family like we have with Batmanís. So maybe this is the price of success.

However, when Superman was doing very well, the family never got as big as Batmanís. In more recent times, we had Superman, Supergirl, Superboy and Steel--and you can add in Clarkís friends and co-workers, Lois, Jimmy, Perry and Lana. In the classic era, when Superman was the undisputed king of DC and Batman was just happy to play in the same sandbox, we had Superman, Superman as a boy (Superboy), Lois and Jimmy who all had their own titles--plus Supergirl sharing a book with Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes sharing a book with Superboy.

Now, I remember back then the common complaint about the 1960s Superman, especially from the Marvel fans and in general from the serious-minded comic book readers, was that the Superman family was too big. I guess, if you include the Legion of Super-Heroes and you include all the people in the bottle city of Kandor--then it might seem that way. But really, in contrast to the current Batman family, the Superman family was never that big. So it seems odd that people are so accepting of so many spin-offs now--when a surfeit of spin-off characters used to be considered the sign that the comics had sold out on their values.

Not that I always begrudged Batman his familiar connections. You could make the argument that Batman is the one who started the family concept, so maybe heís more entitled to the rewards. As far as I know, Batman was the first costumed mystery man to have a costumed kid partner. And then everyone copied him. But not Superman--when DC needed a kid spin-off of Superman, that was Superman himself.

It was Fawcett, with their Marvel Family who really showed the other comic companies how itís done. They had successful titles for Billy, Mary and Freddy--and even Hoppy for awhile. It seems like DC didnít really figure out that a family would be a good thing until Fawcett was on its way out. And DC took their sweet time to go whole hog on the idea.

In addition to Robin, Batman had Gordon, Alfred and, for a brief time in the early 1950s, Catwoman who tried to go straight. Superman had Lois, Perry and, with renewed interest thanks to the TV show, Jimmy Olsen. But DC struggled to spin-off any costumed characters from Superman--it was like they didn't want to damage the brand by challenging his uniqueness. Batman got Batwoman, Ace the Bathound and then Bat-Mite and Bat-Girl. While Superman finally got Krypto and Supergirl and the Legion. But because of his marquee value, it was Superman who supported a lot more titles for his family, while Batmanís family had to stay within his own comics--other than Robinís run in STAR-SPANGLED during the late 1940s/early 1950s.

And all the classic Superman spin-off characters, other than his longtime friends (Jimmy, Lois, Perry, Lana and Pete), were distanced from Superman himself. Supergirl at first was kept in hiding and later on lived well away from Metropolis. The Legion of Super-Heroes were way off in the 30th century. The Superboy stories, including Krypto, were located in Smallville. Metropolis never felt crowded with capes.

I don't like a Superman family member more than him. I'm just not a big fan of legacy characters, especially when they are written in a way that they take away from the main member of the family aka Supes.

But when the legacy characters are written right without putting Superman down to make them look better, then I'm ok with it. I can watch it and enjoy it to a degree. I really like Superman supporting characters like Lois Lane, Jimmy, Perry and I love Lex Luthor. Lois is also a badass character when written well. I don't read Batman or any of his family books.